Monthly Archives: January 2010

The Bible is overflowing with instructions to declare Yahweh’s Name. For example, it commands us to shout out His Name (Psalm 22: 31) and to tell the world about His righteousness (Psalm 22: 31), His truth (Psalm 30: 9), His works (Psalm 73: 28), His mighty acts (Psalm 145: 4), and His greatness. (Psalm 145: 6) It orders us to proclaim Yahweh’s Name when we assemble together (Psalm 22: 22), to our children (Psalm 78: 6), and to heathen peoples. (Psalm 96: 3) It directs us to call on His Name (Psalm 80: 18), to seek His Name (Psalm 83:16), to fear His Name (Psalm 86: 11), to confess His Name (Isaiah 26: 13), to glorify His Name (Psalm 86: 12), to sing praises to His Name (Psalm 92: 1), and to bless His Name. (Psalm 96:2)

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“For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.” (Thomas Jefferson)

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Scripture:

Today I’ll show where Yahweh’s Name belongs in Romans chapter 9:

Romans 9

  1. I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit,
  2. that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.
  3. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
  4. who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,
  5. whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
  6. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;
  7. nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.”
  8. That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
  9. For this is the word of promise: “AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON.”
  10. And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;
  11. for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls,
  12. it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.”
  13. Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.”
  14. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!
  15. For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.”
  16. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
  17. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.”
  18. So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
  19. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
  20. On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
  21. Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
  22. What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
  23. And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
  24. even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
  25. As He says also in Hosea, “I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, ‘MY PEOPLE,’ AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, ‘BELOVED.’”
  26. “AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.”
  27. Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BELIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED;
  28. FOR YAHWEH WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY.”
  29. And just as Isaiah foretold, “UNLESS YAHWEH SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH.”
  30. What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith;
  31. but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
  32. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
  33. just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

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SnyderTalk® Commentary:

Currently, I am putting up bite sized pieces of His Name is Yahweh in SnyderTalk Commentary.  If you haven’t read it, it will be a treat for you.  If you have read it, you will probably enjoy reading it again.  Don’t hesitate to share it with your friends.  You can download the entire manuscript for free at His Name is Yahweh, or you can buy it in Kindle format from Amazon for just $5.

I have left out several footnotes.  Please go to the website His Name is Yahweh and download the manuscript.  It has all the footnotes, and it’s free.

God’s Name is Not Jehovah

Between the years 500 A.D. and 1000 A.D., vowel markings were invented and introduced in the Hebrew language.  To prevent Jewish people from accidentally saying Yahweh, the rabbis decided to place the vowel markings for the word “Adonai” (which is translated into English as “lord”) on the Name “Yahweh.”  That produced a word with this sound: YeHoVah.

In 1520 A.D., a Bible scholar named Galatinus mistakenly called God by the name “Jehovah.”  In 1611 A.D., the translators of the original King James Bible explained in a footnote that Yahweh’s Name is Jehovah.  That’s why so many people today believe Yahweh’s Name is Jehovah.  Of course they’re wrong, but most of them know only what they have been told, and they have been given incorrect information.

Below are two pictures of opening pages from an original copy of the 1611 A.D. King James Bible.  You’ll notice Yahweh’s Name in Hebrew on both pages at the top of the page in the center.  These copies come from the Vatican archives.

Yahweh Commanded Us to Declare His Name to the World

In this book, as a rule I avoid criticizing any Bible translation.  Clearly, translating from one language to another is difficult since words may have multiple meanings and because colloquial expressions can change the natural meanings of words.  However, in this and in one other instance I’ll make an exception to my rule.

The New American Standard Bible translates Genesis 4: 26 in the following way:

“To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh.  Then men began to call upon the Name of Yahweh.”

The King James Version and the New International Version differ only slightly from the NAS translation.  However, The Septuagint Tanach (a version of the Tanach, or the Jewish Old Testament, that was translated from Hebrew to Greek in 285 B.C. by a team of 70 rabbis) and The New Jerusalem Bible tell us in Genesis 4: 26 that Enosh (not men as the NAS, KJV, and NIV suggest) was the first person in history “to invoke the Name of Yahweh.”

Below is a literal translation of the Hebrew in Genesis 4: 26:

“And to Seth also was born a son, and he called his name Enosh.  Then he (Enosh) began to call on the Name of Yahweh.” (The parentheses are mine.)

The Hebrew word translated in this verse as “to call” is qara (kaw-raw’).  It means to call upon, to cry unto, or to proclaim.  Obviously, Yahweh had a reason for including this information in the Bible.  He wanted us to know who invoked His Name the first time and when he did it.

Clearly, this verse in Genesis challenges the Jewish tradition forbidding the use of Yahweh’s Name, and it should raise serious questions about the legitimacy of that tradition.  In spite of this, in The Stone Edition Tanach, The ArtScroll Series, a highly regarded version of the Tanach, Rabbi Nosson Scherman translates Genesis 4: 26 in the following way:

“And as for Seth, to him also a son was born, and he named him Enosh.  Then to call in the Name of HASHEM (Yahweh) became profaned.” (The parentheses are mine.)

Rabbi Scherman’s translation of Genesis 4: 26 contradicts most Bible translations on the market today, and it also disagrees with The Septuagint Tanach.  Moreover, his translation is internally inconsistent because the Psalms, the prophets, and the Torah that he translates make it perfectly clear that Yahweh commanded us to declare His Name to the world.

I bring this up to make a point.  It is dangerous and irresponsible to mistranslate Yahweh’s Word deliberately in an attempt to make it comply with our traditions.  If Yahweh’s Word contradicts our traditions, then we should abandon our traditions.  Yahweh will not give anyone permission to alter the plain meaning of His Word.

Yahweh forbids the misuse of His Name or the use of it in a deceitful or duplicitous manner.  In his translation of Genesis 4: 26, Rabbi Scherman has distorted the true meaning of God’s Word to make it comply with a Jewish tradition that contradicts His Word.  Jewish people need to know this, and Rabbi Scherman should correct his error!

I used strong words in criticizing Rabbi Scherman’s translation of Genesis 4: 26, and later you will see that I used strong words to criticize his translation of Proverbs 30: 4.  Thus, I felt compelled to let him read what I said about his work before publishing this book.  I telephoned him and asked him if he would read the sections of this book that are critical of his work, and he agreed.  I mailed him the manuscript for His Name is Yahweh and identified the sections he should read.  One week later, I received this response from him:

“My translation is based on Talmudic and Rabbinic sources going back hundreds—indeed, according to our faith—thousands of years.  Judaism rejects your contention that the recipients of the Torah doctored its meaning, which pre-dates the Common Era.”

Rabbi Scherman did not challenge my interpretation of the Hebrew words used in Genesis 4: 26 and Proverbs 30: 4.  Instead, he defended his translation by referencing “Talmudic and Rabbinic sources” that interpret the Tanach differently.  Later, I will show that these non-Scriptural sources have been the source of much difficulty for the Jewish people.  The Talmud, the Mishnah, and other non-Scriptural sources present and discuss Judaic laws and traditions, many of which defy Yahweh’s written Word.

Yeshua condemned the practice of relying on these “non-Scriptural sources” by saying that Jewish religious leaders had “invalidated the Word of God for the sake of tradition.” (Matthew 15: 6)  In other words, the tradition I’m addressing in this book is the same problem Yeshua confronted almost 2000 years ago.  It affects both Jews and Gentiles because Yahweh’s Name has been edited out of virtually every English Bible translation on the market today.

Although we must be respectful when saying or writing Yahweh’s Name, He commanded us to declare His Name to the world, and in the end, His Name is Yahweh.  For instance, Isaiah 12: 4 tells us to declare Yahweh’s Name and to make His acts known among people everywhere so that His Name will be exalted.  Declaring Yahweh’s Name means more than simply saying it.  Declaring His Name means to shout it out boldly so people everywhere can hear it and know that Yahweh is God.

The Bible is overflowing with instructions to declare Yahweh’s Name.  For example, it commands us to shout out His Name (Psalm 22: 31) and to tell the world about His righteousness (Psalm 22: 31), His truth (Psalm 30: 9), His works (Psalm 73: 28), His mighty acts (Psalm 145: 4), and His greatness. (Psalm 145: 6)  It orders us to proclaim Yahweh’s Name when we assemble together (Psalm 22: 22), to our children (Psalm 78: 6), and to heathen peoples. (Psalm 96: 3)  It directs us to call on His Name (Psalm 80: 18), to seek His Name (Psalm 83:16), to fear His Name (Psalm 86: 11), to confess His Name (Isaiah 26: 13), to glorify His Name (Psalm 86: 12), to sing praises to His Name (Psalm 92: 1), and to bless His Name. (Psalm 96:2)

It is an irrefutable fact that Yahweh commanded us to cry out with a loud voice and say, “Yahweh is our God!  Look and see what He has done!”  Yahweh wants us to know Him and His Name and to declare His Name to the world.  It is impossible to reconcile the unambiguous commands in the Bible with Rabbi Scherman’s translation of Genesis 4: 26.

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News Items of Interest:

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His Name is Yahweh:

There is a wealth of material available for free download on www.hisnameisyahweh.org including the book His Name is Yahweh.  His Name is Yahweh is also available at Amazon on Kindle for just $5.  If you haven’t read His Name is Yahweh, you should.  The importance of Yahweh’s Name is becoming more apparent with each passing day.

Available on Amazon Kindle and it can be downloaded at www.hisnameisyahweh.org